RedRock

I’m ‘sticking’. Just. We could, and should, be doing better. The Atkinson debacle just sums Bristol City up. It was supposed to change under Pearson’s tenure, its not. We do our rigorous DNA assessment, we buy someone who is a ‘laid back’ character, we seemingly allowed him to develop his ‘laid back’ trait in training and on the pitch to the degree he is sidelined because he’s ‘laid back’, we put an aging midfielder who can hardly impact midfield let alone the heart of our defence as the replacement lynch pin of our defence …. not good enough I’m afraid. It’s the ‘same old’ story, like our injury list, like our weak physical strength, our lack of fitness and leadership, our failed transfer ‘punts’, our tendency to be consistently inconsistent…..the Club appear relentless in pursuit of failure. Pearson was the man to stop the rot. The majority of fans, while seeking ‘revolution’ have been very accepting, to date, of an ‘evolutionary’ approach. The clock, however, is ticking and Pearson’s cutting it fine. I always gauge where we are at by the number of players I would be gutted to see leave the Club at the next transfer window. There is ONE for this window, Tommy Conway, just a young lad who has broken into the first team. What an inditement of our playing squad, the manager, coaches and recruitment team is that? Fed up of excuses, delivery in performances and results required, and now.

…and that’s the difference between the front-foot, aggressive, high-tempo modern game and the old style passive, possession one. Basically, we’re England in disguise, but far, far worse.

Set aside the defensive coaching, Euell appears not to have provided any ‘added value’ to the attacking part of the team. Be interesting to see this season’s stats before/after he was appointed. As a team and strike force, I strongly suspect we’ve got worse, not better…. and people are talking about Euell as a replacement for Pearson! I think the gauge has moved towards the ‘uneasy’ zone on this regime.

Like it. Like it (and him) a lot, all positives for me and echoing much of what many of us have been saying for the past 4-5 years, but…. 1) his players - the one’s he has brought in from other Clubs - are as inconsistent/injury prone as those he inherited and I suspect some of those we’ve had to pay off are his signings 2) have fitness levels improved? One of his early first priorities. Is that 90 minutes high intensity capability there yet? 2) mixed messages - ‘Xmas Day off with the family’ - particularly after the Stoke debacle, would be expecting at least half a session on the day before a crucial match Anyhow, trust in Nigel and we go on to beat West Brom. Did Tins work with Moyes at Everton?

Good idea Gareth. You’d still get England knocked out before every final though.

We’ve just been dumped out of the elite Nations Grouping to become a second tier side, held comfortably by the USA and beaten in the QFs by France, who were severely depleted by injuries to key players. Until we accept being failures is unacceptable - whether for the umpteenth time by reason of penalty shoot-outs or playing limp-wristed, passive, possession football, change won’t happen. The FA were made to look like t**ts while waiting for Southgate to make HIS mind up over whether HE wishes to continue sums up the bunch of losers they are. A reminder, a culture is set from the top. Clearly, there are people who think our football leaders are winners. I’m afraid I don’t.

In the World of Football England has the: wealthiest football association, if not the ‘best’, the most competitive and well-supported domestic league with a massive pyramid, significant investments in football development, coaching and infrastructure, one of the largest talent pools with the game being the Country’s No1 sport, obscenely high paid sportsmen and coaches, massive foreign influx of players and peoples into the Country providing ‘enrichment’, great fan support, advanced football science … …. and we combine all that with the most incompetent ‘old school’ FA administrators and distinctly average ‘FA mould’ managers to win diddly-squat for getting on 60 (a teletext - ‘sixty’) years. Oh Cloughie … as a ‘winner’, you’d have sorted this epic failure of a football organisation out big time.

Umm… this year’s report; relegated from the Nations League (including a 4-0 home defeat to Hungary) and exit at QF stage of the WC…. plus zero progress adapting to the new, effective style of ‘winning football’ - despite him saying at the WC he now wants to play on the ‘front foot’. Either he doesn’t set up to allow the players to do this, selects the wrong players or can’t communicate his ‘front foot’ ideas to the players. Probably a combination of all three. Meanwhile, the FA ‘Blazers’ sit back and appear perfectly content to have a manager announce he’s taking time out to think whether he wants to continue to lead England, no doubt to establish whether he can get a better paid job in Club football. One assumes no Club offers -unsurprisingly - were received by Southgate, so he announces he’s going to stay on. ..and the FA lemmings just lap it up. …and does that not show why we don’t breed ‘winners’ with a do or die mentality. FA is soft and rotten to the core. Just look at how England Cricket have evolved their set up and play recently and have now become serial winners … would love a Ben Stokes type to get in amongst the FA crowd and sort them out.

Only Spain play this way, and remind me when did they get knocked out? Morocco were a supremely drilled and organised defensive unit but even they were a front foot team and were let down by not having a finisher. Southgate’s won nowt and won’t if he constantly allows teams in matches to set up to close down spaces and tightly mark our forward players while the likes of Stones and Maguire scratch their heads wondering what to do with the ball as they pass it along the back line.

Overjoyed that I can continue to watch Maguire and Stones passing it sideways and backwards, slowly, aimlessly for another 18 odd months. The game has moved on. Passive, possession football that is Southgate’s trademark is so yesterday. Nice chap, but as we can see from our own Club’s experiences, nice chaps tend not to lift trophies. FA will be delighted though, which is a good reason why it’s a bad outcome.

Yep, telling him to step aside, while busy fine-tuning his French accent.

France looking on as Southgate, after 3 days of zero job offers from any Clubs, decides to remain as England manager ……… ? ??

How many times have some of us said we need leaders and winners in our team? Just thinking about Rio…. never forget watching Lloyd Kelly thinking this is a revelation. A defensive player who had a controlling first touch that took the ball forward and mindset to play fast forward, not sideways or backwards. Briefest of encounters but, hey, shows what can be done. Returning to Pearson, while defending him for the conduct of the interview, and being generally supportive, we now need signs of sustained improvement. It’s increasingly looking like the same old. He’s had the time, appointed his own backroom staff and signed a number of players … they need to deliver.

Lummydaze, I was expecting a right car-crash of an interview given the comments. There are some right sensitive little petals amongst us aren’t there. Don’t see anything other than a manager answering the questions in a diplomatic, controlled, measured way, despite clearly being livid with his players. Fair play I say. I hope he takes his uncontrolled anger fully out on our under-performers and don’t carers. We HAVE to change our DNA. We’ve been way too soft for decades. The players really put the effort in for Scotty and his 25th didn’t they? Do they care?

Club DNA Why have we players who are STILL not busting every vessel to be match fit +? Why have we academy players sent out on loan to lower league clubs who STILL barely get a game? Why have we a state of the art training and medical facility, coaches and support staff galore and produce such gash? There’s no f …ing excuses. Maybe time for another lad to go in to the changing room and tell these wasters a few home truths. Shambolic.

Chelsea (Clinton)

Morocco are no mugs. Their control, speed of thought and movement are quite exceptional. If only they had someone who could finish off their brilliant approach play.

That wouldn’t be the same Rockhopper with shares valued at 500p sometime back and are now trading less than 10p? Not sure I’d be putting too much weight on their analysis tbh if it’s the same Company.

Hang on though …. while many of our South Coast towns were raided by the Africans and English slaves taken, the French had ‘a go’ too - more out of ‘spite’ - and trashed Teignmouth more than once. The 1690 raid being the last ever foreign invasion on British mainland soil. We’ve even kept their ‘balls in the wall’ to prove it. So down here on the coast we’ve chips on both shoulders… and the finest chips they are too. We don’t hold grudges or nations responsible for historical events though … and will be fully supporting the ref for these last two World Cup matches.

…. support the planners. The desecration caused by insensitive developers/property owners to our historic built and natural environment is obscene. If we can get a man on the moon, we can get an internal electric car recharger cable holder that doesn’t look like a friggin oversized illuminated hose reel.

A clear and obvious penalty …. to anyone but Argentina. The referee should have awarded a free kick to Croatia and sent the attacker off for simulation.

The more I watch tonight’s game (half-heartedly) the more I think we need rid of Southgate. We have the players, just not the game plan. I think the England cricketers have sussed it, be brave, bold and go for the jugular and attack. Go for it from the off, as the cricketers do. Don’t think I can bear to watch another Maguire square pass in our own half to Stones, Stones square pass back to Maguire, Maguire backward pass to Stones ….. and so it goes on….. Football has moved on. Southgate, I fear, hasn’t.

Well, I’ve just bought an electric bicycle which feels like it would give my GSX1400 a good run for its money! If that bicycle is anything to go by, the future is electric. Was tempted to wait for the next generation 400-450 mile range cars but might put up with less now in exchange for being ‘green’ and the smooth, blisteringly fast power delivery.

VAR needs to explain its decision-making. If they think the foul was outside the penalty box and there was no contact on the line or in the box, then say so. If they got it wrong, admit it. Struth, Rugby refs explain their analysis and decision-making live, off a pitch side big screen that all the spectators can see. Put your ‘big boy pants’ on football. As we can see, conspiracy theorists have a field day otherwise. There’s a risk that football is brought into disrepute and we can’t be having that, can we football administrators?

I thought 5 minutes before he was subbed he was showing signs of fatigue. Possibly what the coaching team saw also. Whether Sterling was the right choice sub, but a like for like I suppose as our formation was causing the French issues. I still struggle with our back-foot play personally. The only time Stones went into the opposition half with the ball (aside from corners/free kicks) we scored (I think, anyhow). We are way too timid at the back, whether by instruction or lack of confidence. Far to easy to set up against for any quality opposition team, it’s almost as if we politely wait until the opposition set up in defence before we ‘launch’ (which is what we inevitably did in the first half) a forward pass. That has to change…we had the pace and skill up front to devastate teams if we choose that approach…but because Southgate is petrified of ‘basketball style’ matches he plays an ultra safe game. I think, like Spain have found, possession based football is a dinosaur.